The FORK in the road

Hello everyone!

It seems that we are at a fork in the road concerning decisions on Lauren's next treatment plan. After discussing the preliminary scan with her Oncologist this past Tuesday, there are still some looming questions. Long story short, we do not know for sure whether the spots in her lungs (which coincidentally have NO metabolic activity) are either cancer or scar tissue. Without a biopsy, we will really never know. In addition, the primary tumor, which showed NO metabolic activity back in November, is now lighting up again. *BIG SIGH* We have not discussed additional conventional/traditional treatment protocols (assuming the Oncologists would want her to stay on the current/last protocol) but do have a couple of options we have courted from the Naturopath. I am not 100% prepared to discuss these options until late next week when I will Skype with her ND. Until then, I will let y'all sit with this latest news. Uncertainty really does suck. If we knew more information about the lung scans, then it would be a lot easier to decide whether we go left or right. But that isn't going to happen and we are going to just take a few weeks to consider all her options.

On Sunday we joined NNCCF at Wild Island Adventures in Sparks for some mini-golf and go-cart fun. It is always nice to see our fellow cancerverse families (some of whom we never get to see because treatment days are different for everyone). We met up with our favorite nurse, Courtney, whom we will not be seeing anymore in clinic as she has decided to not go back and forth from hospital to clinic and will be focusing herself full-time at the hospital from now on. I am so glad that we have developed a friendship outside of treatment because she really is a GREAT person and Lauren and I would both miss her very much if we didn't see her anymore. We had a blast playing golf and Lauren was driven around in the go-carts by her surrogate mother, Leslie, from NNCCF. My heart broke when I saw Sandra, another mom who I got to know from days at the hospital when Lauren was receiving her chemo there. Sandra lost her son Cristian recently (Lauren and Cris had the same treatment days before we moved to the new clinic). I had to go outside for a quick meltdown as it was really the first time I acknowledged his death and was just so over-whelmed with grief. I hope to stay close to Sandra in the future. She really is a GREAT person and an awesome MOM =)

That's all the time I have folks. This weekend is our annual Relay For Life event back in Cali and I have been crafting bracelets and making signs with Lauren. We walk for childhood cancer. Someday, there will be better treatment options and less long term effects and I want it to be because we made a difference. If you would like to donate to ACS and Team Lola, please click the link above =)

peace & love
-cherri